FGS RTF does not look good

A blizzard of a messages on the RootsMagic-Users list has resulted in my noticing defects in the Family Group Sheet report when saved to Rich Text Format and then printed from Microsoft Word 2010 in Compatibility Mode. Hopefully the following side-by-side image comparison shows the problems. On the left is a PDF created by printing the RTF in Word to CutePDF; I get the same results printing to Bullzip and PDFfill as well as saving directly from Word to PDF. On the right is the PDF saved from RootsMagic; it is a faithful reproduction of what we see in RM's Report Viewer. I have highlighted the problems:

Cells or borders missing

Photo chopped off on the right-hand side

First footnote reference number in a different format from the following numbers when there is more than one.

Tick marks between the fact name and fact date; not seen in a paper printout from Word but on all PDFs from Word

Thanks Tom. I did the same thing in Word 2007, but highlighted the box and had the box lines showing. My footnotes stayed the same as in the RM Viewer screen. When the lines were showing this is what I have.

Father Thomas BALL-5781–4

Birth

abt 1738

Northumberland County, Virginia5–7

Heir

2 Jan 1746

listed in his grandmother Taylor's will; Lancaster County, Virginia8

Residence

bet 1766 and 1768

Richmond County, Virginia7

Residence

1767/8

Amelia County, Virginia7

Property (sold)

29 Oct 1768

1,768 acres; Amelia County, Virginia9–10

Property

23 Feb 1769

in Amelia Co. VA; Amelia County, Virginia11–12

Heir

11 Jun 1769

he is listed in his father-in-law's will; North Farnham Parish, Richmond County, Virginia13

Heir

29 Jun 1770

mentioned that gave "his son Thomas Ball an estate by deed of gift."; Lancaster County, Virginia7,14

Military

4 Jun 1776

Amelia County, Virginia15–16

Residence

bet 1787 and 1797

Spotsylvania County, Virginia7

Deed

4 Mar 1794

Spotsylvania County, Virginia17–18

Land Record

2 Mar 1795

Spotsylvania County, Virginia18–19

Residence

1797–1815

Northumberland County, Virginia7

Will

14 May 1814

Northumberland County, Virginia20

Death

1815–1816

Northumberland County, Virginia7,21

Probate

12 Feb 1816

Northumberland County, Virginia22

Burial

Marriage

3 Apr 1766

Warsaw, Richmond County, Virginia23–27

Father Captain George BALL-601 (1713-1770)

Mother Anne\Anna TAYLOR-686 (1714-1770)

Mother Mildred DOWNMAN-64528–31

Genealogy:"I work on genealogy only on days that end in "Y"." [Grin!!!]from www.GenealogyDaily.com."Documentation....The hardest part of genealogy""Genealogy is like Hide & Seek: They Hide & I Seek!"" Genealogists: People helping people.....that's what it's all about!"from http://www.rootsweb....nry/gentags.htm
Using FO and RM since FO2.0

Ugh Apparently using certain buttons above this message do not do a screen print right.... Did not show it like on the preview screen. Renee please delete these two messages. Thanks

Genealogy:"I work on genealogy only on days that end in "Y"." [Grin!!!]from www.GenealogyDaily.com."Documentation....The hardest part of genealogy""Genealogy is like Hide & Seek: They Hide & I Seek!"" Genealogists: People helping people.....that's what it's all about!"from http://www.rootsweb....nry/gentags.htm
Using FO and RM since FO2.0

Nettie, to embed an image in the post you need to first upload an image file (JPG, PNG) to an image hoster (I just started using http://postimage.org/). It then provides a URL for the file which you copy and paste into the URL box that opens in the Forum message editor when you click on the image icon. You cannot copy and paste an image directly into the message editor. To capture an image from the screen, I use the Windows 7 Snipping Tool found in the Accessories folder on the Start Menu.

All or most of these defects can be corrected by editing in Word but we should not need to do so. The effort required is multiplied by the number of Family Group Sheets you are publishing.

The missing borders can be corrected by changing the border settings for parts of the table judiciously. You cannot simply apply borders to the whole table to surround every cell if you want it to look like what you see in RM Report Viewer because that results in borders where there were naught in the RM Report Viewer; some might think it looks cluttered. There are several steps involved. I took the easy route in the example below.

The column width for the fact Description-Place data is wider in Word than in Report Viewer and can be adjusted in Word but shoves the rows after Birth below the photo, thus wasting space and looking bad in a different way. It doesn't line up the column for the following person. So there are many steps which I have yet to figure out to get the entire photo displayed without wasted white space and column disarray. Alternatively, and more easily, I selected the Table, right-click and select Table Properties > Options > Automatically resize to fit contents - that worked well for this one example; I don't know how generally it will work out.

A criticism of the layout is that the table has no margins between content and borders. Another edit is required to set the Default cell margins to 0.05 cm so that the text stands apart from the borders, especially noticeable at the border between the date and the fact description where it is too crowded.

Where there is more than one superscript footnote reference number, the first number is Times New Roman 10 but the following comma and reference numbers are Arial 11. That's in the row for the Person's name. In the fact rows, the font size is smaller. The inconsistent font type and size within a series of citation references can be corrected by selecting the group of superscripts and selecting applying one font type and size, a tedious process requiring you to inspect for occurrences of multiple citations.

The following image is a screenshot from Word after having carried out the above changes. Although it looks much better, unfortunately, there are other problems with Indexes that I will get to later.

No index marker is created for the first child, therefore no page number shown by Report Viewer for that person in the Index of Names. When Index of Names is updated in Word, the first child is deleted from the Index.

When Index of Names or of Places is updated by Word, the format is lost or replaced by one with larger and different fonts, loss of colour coding and a lot of added white space; thus one is left with a major mess to clean up. Maybe this is a Word issue that somebody could help me with.How can I preserve or restore the style of Index produced by RM?

Nettie, to embed an image in the post you need to first upload an image file (JPG, PNG) to an image hoster (I just started using http://postimage.org/). It then provides a URL for the file which you copy and paste into the URL box that opens in the Forum message editor when you click on the image icon. You cannot copy and paste an image directly into the message editor. To capture an image from the screen, I use the Windows 7 Snipping Tool found in the Accessories folder on the Start Menu.

Thanks I was wondering how that would work, tired the other buttons and did not work. I did use Win 7 printscreen button do not know if it is the same as you used. Will have to experiment. I agree with your explanation on the note after mine. I have noticed that no matter what you set up in RM for a transfer of a report fonts do not remain the same as requested. Whether that is Word or ..... I usually do not sent a FGS to rtf only reports with lists like Place List, Source List or.... and big time Narrative Reports.

Genealogy:"I work on genealogy only on days that end in "Y"." [Grin!!!]from www.GenealogyDaily.com."Documentation....The hardest part of genealogy""Genealogy is like Hide & Seek: They Hide & I Seek!"" Genealogists: People helping people.....that's what it's all about!"from http://www.rootsweb....nry/gentags.htm
Using FO and RM since FO2.0

... I did use Win 7 printscreen button do not know if it is the same as you used...

Shift-PrtScrn or Ctrl-PrtScrn merely captures the screen to the clipboard from which you the have to paste the image into MS Paint or other graphic editor and then save as a file. The Snipping Tool is an actual program that you launch from Start > Accessories in Windows 7 and is much more useful. You can select full screen, a window or a box which it captures to its own editor in which you can do basic markups, such as the yellow highlighter that I used, before you save it to a file.

I always used Alt-PrtScrn which copies only the active window of the screen so that there wasn't nearly as much cropping to do.

I just checked, that snipping tool is there in Vista too.

Another little tool that I hadn't discovered.
That will save me a lot of cropping, If I can remember to use it.
Maybe you can teach an old dog a new trick now and then.
But, at my age it is the REMEMBERING that is the problem.

First footnote reference number in a different format from the following numbers when there is more than one.

Tick marks between the fact name and fact date; not seen in a paper printout from Word but on all PDFs from Word

No index marker is created for the first child, therefore no page number shown by Report Viewer for that person in the Index of Names. When Index of Names is updated in Word, the first child is deleted from the Index.

When Index of Names or of Places is updated by Word, the format is lost or replaced by one with larger and different fonts, loss of colour coding and a lot of added white space; thus one is left with a major mess to clean up.

LibreOffice did not handle the indexes exported by RM properly in my brief test so I rejected it as a non-starter. Before we advocate using something from people other than the authors of the RTF specs, let's test thoroughly.